Every great performance goes out with a bang, right? My favorite finale has always been fireworks. Whether it’s the end of the day at Disney World or a Fourth of July Celebration, I enjoy the bright colors and loud sounds of the explosions. They bring to mind a sense of power and impact that finishes off a great day.

Why not take that concept and include it into copywriting for your next direct mail campaign? The three most import aspects of any sales letter/flyer/postcard are:

1. Openings that get your mail read
2. Copy that sells
3. And yes… a call-to-action that makes a big bang!

The call-to-action must be direct and to the point. A simply click here, buy today, or save money isn’t enough. It’s kind of like hanging up a “Wanted Dead or Alive” sign around town without supplying a name. It doesn’t lead to the capture of many “wanted.”

The three basic aspects of a strong call to action are…

1. Communicate your expectations.
If you want your reader to pick up the phone, visit your Web site, or bring a coupon to your store, say it. Be direct! Let them know exactly what you want them to do.

There’s an old saying… curiosity killed the cat. Let’s face the facts; cats aren’t the only creatures that get sucked into whirlpool of curiosity. Everyday we find ourselves bombarded with moments of curiosity. The best example… headlines!

Headlines either suck us into their vacuum or repel us instantly. How many times have you picked up the newspaper and found yourself scanning the pages because a headline caught your attention?

Marketing experts know that headlines are just as powerful in their direct mail campaigns as they are on the front page of the newspaper. The difference? …attention getting headlines on your postcard or flyer make money!

What does it take to create powerful headlines?

3 Foolproof Secrets for Creating Power-Packed Headlines

1. Telegraph the Offer
This might be a little tricky to pull off, but the secret is to present your offer in a way that screams, “Read Me!” without giving away the guts of the offer. You should focus on one feature of your product or service and come up with a snappy statement that raises the reader’s eyebrows.

Email is the Net’s most powerful marketing tool. And autoresponders are the best idea yet for marketing with email.

There is an old saying that the first ad rarely sells. You have to put your product, service, or idea in front of a prospect several times before she buys.

Autoresponders are designed specifically to get your message back to the same prospect over and over. That’s why most autoresponder packages come in groups of 7 messages–from the 7 message marketing rule that has been the rule in advertising since our grandparents were in diapers.

But what do you say in your 7 messages? We’ve written autoresponder series for hundreds of customers. Here is one method that always works.

This method is called REMIND ‘EM. People don’t read your sales letter as carefully as you think. They tend to skim. They read the first message, but miss the second and third message. The prospect may not tune in again until message five. It’s so easy for people to completely miss your main points intended to lead to a sale.

It’s important to *repeat* your main message over and over. Say it once, twice, three times in your first message. Say your main message in a different way in the second message. Re-cap your main point again in the third message. That way, people who aren’t paying attention still get your important ideas.

In a nutshell, multiple streams of income means your business has more than one way to make money. For instance, you sell products and you sell services. Those are different streams of incomes. But that’s just the beginning. Below are 10 ideas of different income sources you can use to increase your business’s bottom line:

1. Sell a variety of services. Or you can bundle your services into packages depending on what your typical client is looking for. But be careful about this one. Don’t spread yourself too thin. You want to offer a few different services or a choice of packages but you don’t want too many options because it’s very difficult to market yourself effectively.

2. Sell your own products. These can be information products (books, home study courses, CDs, special reports, etc.) or they can be physical products. You can also group similar products into product lines. Then you can upsell, downsell or cross-sell products to different customers on your list.

3. Sell other people’s products (or services). Here’s where you become an affiliate. Basically how it works is once you’re approved to be an affiliate, you get your own link. Anytime someone uses that link and buys a product, you can a percentage of the sale. That percentage can be anywhere from 10 percent (mostly for services) to more than 50 percent.